Musings of an English Miss

Weapon of Choice

2007-08-10T09:45:08Z

“Shoot! Go on.” The man had an arm around my middle, a knife at my throat. “I guessed as much. That they would do anything to protect you.”

I felt the change… the surge of power and blood lust coursing through my veins… just as sure as I felt his conceit.

He thinks he has the upper hand… he thinks to use me as a shield, his assumptions of my ‘abilities’ based on the cut of my clothes, my prim demeanor. I could wait, take my time and lull him further into my trap, but really, the effort would be my undoing. I have never been a patient woman. Strange… a man who believes himself a hunter – a killer, in fact, cannot feel the stillness within my body – the lack movement – the lack of fear.

“See now that is your biggest mistake…” I felt the beast welling up within me, a growl much like the big cats in the London Zoo would utter as they stared out at the crowds purred through my skin. He should notice, but his eyes, his attention were directed at the other members of the League, thinking that they are the threat. What a fool. “Thinking that I need them to protect me.”

As I shift in his arms, turning to face him with death in my eyes, it is he who is afraid. Delicious.

When I have had my fill, it is he who will be dead.

011 Weapon
243 Word Counts

The Aftermath

2007-07-26T09:50:05Z

Her arm hung over the side of the bed, fingertips bent where they met the floor. A slight shift from the other side of the bed pulled groan from her lips. “Mercy, Jekyll… have you no mercy?”

Lips, thin and warm pressed against the curve of her lower back. “None for you, my dear. None at all… considering the marks you left on me.”

“If I recall correctly,” she turned on her back, the sheets falling away from her body like layers of skin peeling away to reveal the living, breathing tissue beneath, “you asked me… begged me to mark you.” Mina pressed her fingers against his chest, smoothing the tips over the expanse of his pale skin, down to the two incision holes just above his nipple. “Do you regret your decision?”

He took her hand in his, pressing the tips of her fingers to his lips. “No regrets, Mina… not a one. You have taken everything I have given freely… and I pray that you excuse the weakness of my flesh before my desire…”
Leaning forward, Jekyll closed his mouth over the side of her neck and bit into her flesh.

“… for I will ravage you again before the night is over…”

Mina sighed and wound her arms around her lover, holding him tight to her body. “Oh Jekyll,” her throaty giggle was languid with heat, “promises promises.”

001. Ravished
Word Count 236

Bound in Chains

2007-07-26T09:27:00Z

Mina could not help but return to the hold nearly an hour later when the room had been cleared of people, but the evidence of their capture still remained. ‘Surely,’ she thought, ‘I would have believed Nemo’s men to be better housekeepers than this.’ She held a chain in her hand, the single link larger than her palm and the metal cold and chill, even against her own death-like pallor.

‘These chains…’ her thoughts drifted off, a wall of muscles, arms of such a girth that he could have snapped most any man in the room in two halves with nary a thought, this is the man, ‘they bound in these chains.’
She smiled, the corners of her mouth turning up with an inhuman stillness that belied her power.

He, the man… no, the monster they called Hyde, he’d pulled such a chain, breaking the link that had held it to the ground with a flick of his wrist. He’d broken a solid metal link nearly as thick as her wrist.

‘The strength…’ the taste of fascination danced on her tongue. She had seen the awesome power in his form, felt the room shudder with his animal-like howls and she felt the play of his energy along her spine. Mr. Hyde was a fascinating specimen of a man, and she would, if given the delectable opportunity, study him from head to toe.

And... if the way he looked at her was any indication, he was willing to submit.
Word Count 254 - Dark Fic 030. Chains

21Picture - Doorknob

2007-02-03T07:49:51Z

She waited outside the door, not because she was asked to. She waited because she was ‘that’ curious. It was not every day that a woman, with a past as ‘interesting’ as hers, was asked anywhere to discuss anything of any import, unless it involved her playing ewe to a ram.

So she stayed, her eyes glancing down at the doorknob, willing it to open.

She could, if she chose, become like the fog on the Thames and flow past the door. Listen in on the conversations in the room. Learn why she had been brought here. Learn what they wanted her for.

She would most likely refuse. After all, they probably were seeking out information on Jonathan and there were some things she wasn’t willing to speak about.

There had been those ‘thrill seekers’ that had darkened her door asking about the Count… asking about Van Helsing. Those she was scare away with a dark look or a caustic word, but those that wanted to know about Jonathan. Those would have the door shut in their face. They wanted to know her sadness… they wanted to know her pain… they were the evil ones. They were the true vampires… the Count had wanted life. They wanted her shame.

They, on the other hand, were also dead.

So, here she waited, wondering if the men she was about to meet would share the same fate.

Play the Fool

2007-01-04T05:40:30Z

Mina crouched down beside the corpse, her senses on the edge, walking the dangerous line between inquisition and bloodlust. Closing her eyes she inhaled the night air and scents rising up from the blood. “It’s not all hers.”

“I could have told you that.” Hyde sounded smug, his voice heavy with effort.

Turning her head she raised an eloquent brow. “If you knew that as a certainty, why did you not say so immediately?”

He inclined his head toward her. “Simple. I liked the view.” He gave her a wink and slid his gaze from her face to the curve of her backside, “go back to what you were about and I’ll pass the time in a most ‘pleasant’ manner.” Hyde slid his hand over his thigh and Mina watched as it disappeared into the shadows of his thighs.

Mina straightened up, drawing her spine into a perfect line as she regarding the smirking hulk a few feet away. “We’re on the hunt and you waste our time. Get a hold of your self, Hyde.”

He gave her a leering look, “That I have, ladybird. Care to offer me the use of one of your lily white hands to-”

She caught him by the throat, lifting him a full three inches off the ground.

Hyde gasped for air, his hands flailing in the semi-darkness as he stared into Mina’s blood-red eyes. “Let me go. Let – me – go.”

Mina pulled him closer until his toes barely scraped the cobblestones. “Don’t be a fool, Hyde. Don’t put me to the test. You won’t like it if you test me.”

Once her hand released his neck he fell to his knees in a heap along the stones at her feet.

She loomed over him. “You will not do that again, understood?”

Hyde rubbed at his neck, touching the skin she had reddened with her grasping fingers, “Understood.”

A lantern clattered to the ground behind her and Mina whirled to the sound. A tall figure, dressed in a wool overcoat was half illuminated in the streetlamp. He mouth agape at the sight of them beside the body. “What? Who?”

Dragging in a deep breath Hyde smiled, exposing rows of gnarled teeth. “He’s the one. He’s our prey.”

The man fled into the darkness, his heart pounding with fear. It was that sound, that delicious sound that Hyde followed into the shadows. Mina moved quietly in his wake.

Word count 403

Which LXG character are you?

2006-12-31T02:24:11Z

Which Extraordinary Gentleman are you?

Wasting the Night

2006-12-30T09:13:48Z

The night was young, not even an hour past midnight, but hunt had been on for hours. Hyde leaned back against a brick wall, feeling the jagged edges biting into his skin. He sighed from the joy of it all.

A few feet above him, Mina sat perched on the roof of a brownstone tucked tight into the row of tenements along the street, her prim boots dangled just above his head.

If he reached up he could probably snag one of her ankles and pull her down into his arms. Yes, he could have her… squirming against him, her fists beating against his chest as he plundered her mouth with his own.

Hyde swept the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, wiping away the spittle on his skin. He’d wanted to taste her from the beginning and the urge was only getting stronger.

“Come, Hyde… I smell blood a few streets over, are you ready?” Effortlessly, Mina slipped from the edge of the roof and landed on her feet in the street below.

Hyde landed next to her, his weight pulverizing the cobblestones beneath his feet. “I smell it, too.” He gave a low barking laugh as they began to move through the shadows, “Goin’ in for a taste? I may well join you and share in the fun.”

Mina fought down the animal within, siphoned off the bloodlust that clouded her mind with base need and hunger. It took effort, for she had fed off of a precious few in the last week and the denial of her nature exacted a toll on her control. “No. We promised, Nemo-”

“No,” he corrected, “You promised.”

Word Count = 279

Call to Hunt

2006-12-24T11:38:53Z

Talking Muses Prompt 17B - Picture of a Dark Street

She stood in the light of the street lamp, the oily yellow cast across her ample wares. She made no effort to hide them from view. When any sort of man passed by she bent and preened until the light illuminated her charms.

“’Allo there, gov’nah.”

The sailor gave her a bawdy look and stepped closer. “’Allo there, sweet. What you got for Danny, eh?”

“I’ve got a good time for ye, if you’ve got the coin.”

The man fumbled in his pockets and she looked over his shoulder to the hulking shadow in the lane. He shook his head and jerked a thumb toward the end of the lane.

“Nevah mind, boy, a girl ken do bettah, get along now.”

She ignored his grumbling protest, turning her back to him as he ambled away into the shadows.

Mina crossed over to the alley and leaned closer to Hyde’s oversized shadow. “Still no luck.”

“I can find him without you.”

She looked up into his glare with a deadly smile of her own. “But I would be left out of the game and you would wreak havoc in the streets. Neither one is a viable option.”

Nemo appeared at Hyde’s side, “Remember, the Queen has asked for our help, we will not bring dishonor to the League.”

Hyde turned to Nemo, looming over the Captain, “I can find him my way, Nemo.” He clenched his hands and lifted them before Nemo’s face. “I can feel him in the air, like a shiver on my skin… I can smell his lust in the night. I can track him if you’ll let me off the leash.”

He knew Nemo was immovable and changed his tactic. “You know, don’t you, Mina?” He tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “Yes… you have the light in your eyes, that red haze I long to see, you feel it too.”

Mina didn’t shrink from his honest appraisal; she knew he was telling the simple truth. She touched his hand and lowered it. “I could stand here for months and never attract his attention. Let us hunt him our way, Nemo, we can offer you success.”

Hyde grinned, fanning his hot breath over Mina’s neck. “We can offer you his blood.”

Nemo shook his head. “The Queen demands that he be found alive.”

“Found? That’s easy.”

“Hyde! This is no laughing matter. Control yourself!”

Mina put a hand on Hyde’s chest and he stilled, his body leaning into her touch. “I will control him, Nemo. He will do as I ask.”

Nodding, the Captain disappeared into the shadows leaving the two alone.

Mina turned to her companion a look of challenge in her eyes. “Let us hunt.”

“Yes… we will hunt.”

Word Count: 457

Call to Hunt

2006-12-24T11:36:37Z

Talking Muses Prompt 17B - Picture of a Dark Street She stood in the light of the street lamp, the oily yellow cast across her ample wares. She made no effort to hide them from view. When any sort of man passed by she bent and preened until the light illuminated her charms. “’Allo there, gov’nah.” The sailor gave her a bawdy look and stepped closer. “’Allo there, sweet. What you got for Danny, eh?” “I’ve got a good time for ye, if you’ve got the coin.” The man fumbled in his pockets and she looked over his shoulder to the hulking shadow in the lane. He shook his head and jerked a thumb toward the end of the lane. “Nevah mind, boy, a girl ken do bettah, get along now.” She ignored his grumbling protest, turning her back to him as he ambled away into the shadows. Mina crossed over to the alley and leaned closer to Hyde’s oversized shadow. “Still no luck.” “I can find him without you.” She looked up into his glare with a deadly smile of her own. “But I would be left out of the game and you would wreak havoc in the streets. Neither one is a viable option.” Nemo appeared at Hyde’s side, “Remember, the Queen has asked for our help, we will not bring dishonor to the League.” Hyde turned to Nemo, looming over the Captain, “I can find him my way, Nemo.” He clenched his hands and lifted them before Nemo’s face. “I can feel him in the air, like a shiver on my skin… I can smell his lust in the night. I can track him if you’ll let me off the leash.” He knew Nemo was immovable and changed his tactic. “You know, don’t you, Mina?” He tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “Yes… you have the light in your eyes, that red haze I long to see, you feel it too.” Mina didn’t shrink from his honest appraisal; she knew he was telling the simple truth. She touched his hand and lowered it. “I could stand here for months and never attract his attention. Let us hunt him our way, Nemo, we can offer you success.” Hyde grinned, fanning his hot breath over Mina’s neck. “We can offer you his blood.” Nemo shook his head. “The Queen demands that he be found alive.” “Found? That’s easy.” “Hyde! This is no laughing matter. Control yourself!” Mina put a hand on Hyde’s chest and he stilled, his body leaning into her touch. “I will control him, Nemo. He will do as I ask.” Nodding, the Captain disappeared into the shadows leaving the two alone. Mina turned to her companion a look of challenge in her eyes. “Let us hunt.” “Yes… we will hunt.”

Continuing Stories... where do they start ... where do they go?

2006-12-14T19:45:46Z

CONTINUING STORY ARCS
Leading up to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen	(read L to R - Top down)
Away we Go	What do they Want from Me?
to be continued...
IN HER VEINS (summary below)	(read L to R - Top down)
In the Air	(more sections to go here)
Tender Mercies	to be continued...
summary: Mina is injured on a mission, why is she dying?

What do they want from me?

2006-12-14T18:16:55Z

set prior to the movie

"The best antidote to theory is the thing itself." - David Haden.

It was quite a shock when I received the invitation. I ignored it at first. For woman with my ‘talents’ it is pragmatic to remember how easy it would be to become no more than a carnival side-show attraction.

A man, who signs only his initial… what was he hiding? What would he ask of me?

Since Jonathan’s death, I have been quite happy to keep to myself, ignore the advances of the world around me, shut away in my home. I enjoyed becoming a recluse. My brief foray into polite company two years ago had ended badly and is it really so hard to believe that a woman with the ability to rip out your throat could feel emotional pain and suffering of her own?

It was when the third letter arrived through the post that I decided to try again. Perhaps it was just my curiosity that had me leaving the ivy cloyed walls of my cottage to brave the busy streets of London once again, or it may have been that some part of me truly desired to see the spectacle of society again, but whatever reason it was, here I stand before the heavy wooden doors, waiting for someone to answer my summons. Waiting to see what they needed of a widowed vampire.

Word count 217

Window

2006-11-22T06:06:12Z

Mina murmured in her sleep. “Close the window, Jonathan, there’s a bird outside.”

The beating continued, tattooing a wild and untamed rhythm on the glass.

She turned her face into the pillow and pulled the sides over her ears. “Really, now, Jonathan,” came her muffled words through the down stuffed pillow, “make it go away, it is the middle of the night.”

There it was, slicing through her thoughts… that sound. The beating continued, but it seemed to be only a disguise for the real threat. The sound of nails against the glass.

“No.. no, not nails…” whispered her conscious mind as it struggled to emerge from her fitful slumber, “not nails at all…. claws.”

Mina awoke with a fright, her heart pounding like African drums in her head. She clutched her blanket to her chest, her hair falling around her shoulders in disarray.
She turned to the mirror and at once, it was the window…

The window of the asylum next to Carfax. The window where she watched the others destroy crate after crate of earth, depriving the count of his comfort.

The window where she saw herself, reflected on the pane against the night darkened sky, pressing her lips to his flesh, swallowing his blood in wanton abandon while her husband lay thoughtless on a chair nearby.

The window which bore witness to her degradation and fall from grace, it would forever haunt her.

Word Count: 236

The Cycles of Time

2006-11-12T09:14:24Z

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. -- Ulysses, James Joyce.

There is a cycle of sorts in my life. Like the cycle of season, endless wheels of mornings dying into the next day, months bleeding into the next and years, years creeping along toward a bleak future. Yes, I am the harbinger of happiness herself, but I have cause.

Who else, but the most damned of them all would be left to live when those she knew and loved are dying and leaving her behind.

Dear Lucy, lovely friend and nearly sister, Lucy, dead at the hands of a blood malady, risen again into the night only to be sliced apart by the good Doctor, Van Helsing.

Then Jonathan, my dearly departed husband. He entered my life, like the quiet dawn of a spring morning, becoming a part of my life day after day, letter upon letter, winsome word and dulcet dream after dream.

He could not imagine how I had fallen prey to the Count. Could not fathom how I had tasted of his poisoned blood and lived to tell the tale. Jonathan left me as sure that I had played the wanton to the Count’s bloodlust. That I had willingly had gone into his embrace.

Another who left me in my short time on this Earth. Is there no one that will stay with me beyond a few turns of the seasons? Is there no one willing to wake me from this endless nightmare?

Word Count 236

Home

2006-11-12T08:50:18Z

Home. What a quandary. As a child, home was a long list of girls’ academies. Endless lines of Head Masters and Head Mistresses who despised me as soon as I opened my mouth. I was not one to suffer fools, but neither was I one that drew needless attention. I merely spoke what I thought and still that did nothing to ingratiate myself to others.

Lucy was the first who drew herself to my side. I do not recall the exact date, although many would think me wicked to have not recorded such a miraculous date. Rather, it was a small moment that I recall of the beginning of our friendship that held me in thrall.

Others, cruel enough to mention that I lacked what most of them took for granted, family, had taken to taunting me the closer time came to winter leave. Nearly all had places to go and those that did not would be wintering with the staff quite happily. All save, the most dreadful of children, myself.

I had taken to hiding within the hollows of my imagination, dreaming of piles of gifts beneath a fir teaming with silver tinsel and warm candlelight. Piping hot cinder filled my nostrils and a belly full of plum pudding spread its warmth through my skinny limbs, but I knew, deep within the cavity of my heart that I would again be alone for the holidays.

“Where are you going this holiday, Mina?”

“Where? Why nowhere.” I had been loathe to admit that to someone as fine as Lucy Westenra, but I could do naught but tell her the truth. There was something wholly untouched in her smiling eyes. Something so clean and fresh that I so desperately craved in my own life.

She grasped my hand, weaving her fingers with my own and drawing them into her lap. “Then we shall have a grand time, you and I. We shall both go to my home and be like sisters, I declare it.”

“But, Lucy-” I had seen the hard look from Mme. Bainbridge at Lucy’s gentle touch and worried she’d punish me for even talking to the fine miss seated beside me “-your home…”

“Shall be yours too, Mina… if you wish it.”

It was that kind, dear woman that took me into her heart and into her home… and still, I failed her utterly. I left her alone… to die.

Word Count 402

In the Air

2006-10-30T09:37:21Z

*Meant to be placed before 'Tender Mercies'*

Everything seemed entirely too easy. No one wanted to mention it aloud. “To tempt fate,” as Quartermain would’ve said, “would be like tempting the viper into your bed and then crying foul.” It just wasn’t done.

They’d literally walked into the compound with precious little resistance and it had left Hyde a bit testy.

“This is all they offer us? It's barely enough to warrant my talents!”

“Oh, well sorry it wasn’t enough to make it worth it?” Agent Tom Sawyer tossed the comment over his shoulder as he scouted on ahead of the group.

“Boys… play nice.” Mina’s velvet voice slid over their skins, trailing the sting of danger behind it.

Hyde gave a lusty laugh at the thinly veiled threat. “I’ll take anything you give me, lady… anything you’d do to me… and I’ll love it.”

Tom fired off a quick burst of shots then threw out a hand to hold them all back. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

A shift of air lifted the delicate hairs as the nape of her neck. A shift of air and suddenly there was only dread in her belly. There was something terribly wrong. It rippled through her, sizzling through her skin and jumped to Hyde as she accidentally touched his arm.

“Mina?” She could almost hear Jekyll’s voice crying up through the heavy growl that crawled out of Hyde’s throat, but there wasn’t enough time to explain, wasn’t enough time to call out a warning or even run.

She gave a half turn and watched as little windows spat darts from their shadowed cavities at the far end of the hall. They sailed through the air and she felt their sting even as Hyde pulled her behind his broad back.

Tom grasped her arm and pulled her against him. She blinked back her shock and didn’t even fight to stay on her feet as he moved for the door.

It swung open, yawning into the room on strained hinges. Tom looked up with fear in his eyes for the first moment, wondering if it was going to be another setback. Nemo’s men now flooded the hall, their rich blue uniforms as fast flowing as the tides, covering their escape.

Hyde turned back to them, pulling the darts free from his skin as though he were brushing away little flies at a country picnic. “Nonsense, thinking they could hurt me. I feel no pain.”

“I wish it were the same for me.” Mina sagged against Agent Sawyer, her hands splayed at her throat and middle.

Tom tugged at her, trying to put her on her feet. “We’ve got to go, Mrs. Ha-”

She pulled away and leaned against the wall. “Silly, boy… silly…”

Lumbering to her side, Hyde bent down and looked deep in her eyes. She blinked once, and then twice, staring into the dark depths of his soul and saw Jekyll’s eyes staring back. “Mina… what?”

Laughter, ironic and heavily laced with disbelief burst from her as she dropped her hands to her sides. Darts protruded from the dark leather covering her middle, clustered around her abdomen, and one in her shoulder.

It wasn’t until Hyde scooped her up in his arms and her head fell back like a broken porcelain doll spilling back her curtain of auburn hair that they saw the dart buried in her neck, trailing its own dark ribbon of blood along her skin.

A Little Cut

2006-10-22T05:37:46Z

Jekyll had taken to shaving with his eyes closed. It was becoming the only way he could ignore Hyde’s voice. The old adage ‘out of sight out of mind’ was at least partially true. He could, if only for a few moments, ignore the voice in his head if he didn’t see Hyde’s face looking back at him in the mirror.

It had taken some practice, applying the soapy lather with the stiff bristled brush was something akin to the Zen meditation he had read about, the rhythmic sweep of the soap against his skin was calming to his nerves.

With practiced ease he set the brush down on a towel laying on the side of the sink and picked up the sharp edged razor next to it. Taking a long indrawn breath he turned his head to the side, stretching the skin of neck, pulling it taut. Jekyll lifted the razor and set it at the base of his neck, the contact of cold metal against his skin sent a slight shiver through his body.

He drew the blade up along his skin, pulling ever so slightly.

“Doctor?”

His touch faltered, the sound of her voice was distracting, terrifying. The scratch of sound that assaulted his ears was unmistakable.

It took a split second for the pain to sear through his skin.

“Did you… scratch… yourself?”

He heard… anticipation in her voice. Or maybe, it was just in his head. He couldn’t rightly tell.

She was standing beside him, her body probably inches from his own. He could almost feel her. Hyde could definitely scent her.

His hand squeezed the razor’s handle, convulsing as he heard her indrawn breath. “Hmmmm….” there was a smile in her tone. “You’re bleeding, Doctor.”

Swallowing only made it hurt worse.

Her hand on his arm was enough, his eyes opened suddenly with the shock of her touch. He stared back at his own reflection. She leaned in closer, putting weight on her hand as she leaned her face into the shadows between his ear and shoulder. “So… tempting.”

“What is?” He barely heard his own response over the roaring sound of blood in his ears.

Her eyes flickered to the mirror to meet his quizzical gaze. “Do you really want to know? Or would you rather I kept you in the dark, Henry?”

“Tell me.” His voice was harsh with strain.

She smiled and turned away from the mirror, fanning her breath over his skin. “To give in to my baser instincts. You wouldn’t deny me that, would you?”

He didn’t argue… nor could he see her face in the reflection… couldn’t know for sure, but he felt the moist heat before he felt her lips part over his skin. Felt the gentle swipe of her tongue along the bloody scratch on his throat.

She could have asked for his life and he would never have denied her. Could never again deny her anything.

Scorch

2006-10-17T09:08:51Z

She smelled the stench of burning flesh and wondered that she cared at all. The flames seared her palm, burning almost blue with intensity. Hungry for life, the flames stole up her arm, catching on the hem of her blouse, eating through the lawn fabric and the starch.

“Mina! Good God!” Jekyll burst into the room, ripping his jacket from his thin frame he tossed it over her arm as his hands desperately tried to smother the flames. “You could have-“

“Could have what?” Her caustic tone didn’t match the pain in her eyes, but he couldn’t see beyond the fear in his heart.

Inside, Hyde beat at the bars of his fleshy cage. {Out, Henry! Let me out!]

Jekyll dropped his smoldering coat to the floor and gently lifted her hand into the soft white light of the Nautilus. He watched as her skin began to heal, cell by cell, burnt flesh sloughing off her hand and falling, ashen to the floor.

“Mina…” his voice sounded thin and coarse to his ears. “… are you trying to kill me?”

She tried to ignore the heat building in her blood as Jekyll’s thumb traced over the disappearing burns. She doubted he was conscious of his actions, worry furrowing his pale brow.

“I doubt very much that Edward Hyde would allow me to do that. He’d wring my neck first.”

“No.. no…” Henry was trying to protest, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“Oh yes… he would.” She could feel the unfamiliar tickle of laughter building within her chest. “And Hyde would enjoy it. Every last gasping breath.”

Her own heart fell and Jekyll’s downcast gaze. “Mina, let me help you.”

She touched his chin with fingers, whole and healed, and lifted until he met her eyes with his own. “Jekyll, you do help. You make me smile.”

“Smile, Mina?” His confusion evident and worrisome.

“The way you treat me as though I were a proper English Miss. As though I could break with a touch.” She regarded his startled expression and drew her fingers up and over his sharp cheekbone. “I’m truly thankful, Jekyll.. more than you could know.”

He went up in flames, desire fanning his fever and shame, like a fuse burning toward an explosive end.

Hyde began to claw at his skin, as though he could somehow break through without the formula. For a second, as his skin startled to smolder with awareness, Jekyll thought it might be possible.

He stumbled back away from her, instantly missing the touch of her skin, but desperate to keep Mina at arm’s length… desperate for control anyway he could get it. As he backed out the door, his eyes seemed to plead with her for something.

Mina watched as he disappeared, her acute hearing focused on his every retreating step. Part of her wished that he had stayed, that he had unburdened himself to her as she so longed to do with him. She’d felt the flames rising within him, flames that burned within her as well. For now, they’d escaped the inferno, but you can’t keep away from the fire forever… even the most careful person will be scorched… eventually.

Word Count 531

Tender Mercies

2006-10-15T08:02:24Z

Mina could smell blood in the air, it mattered not that it was hers. The scent was pungent and fresh as it tempted her nose and called to the beast within.

“Can I get you something, Mrs. Harker?”

His face swam before her, his voice barely discernable beyond the roar of need in her head.

She struggled to lift her hand from the blankets they’d piled on her, but her arm was leaden, weakened by her illness. “Not now, Tom… not now.” Those were her words, but within, her body called out for him to come closer.

“Alright, then. I’ll stay here until you need me. Jekyll’s in the lab working on something.” There was much that her body needed. She required blood. At the rate that she was burning through the blood she consumed, she would be dry in a matter of hours. She would bleed out into oblivion if Doctor Jekyll failed to find the solution. She desired sex. It was among her baser instincts and this close to death it was almost as important her next breath or taste of blood.

Now, with Tom Sawyer perched on the edge of her bed, her whole body was drawn to him. He would give it to her. He would give her blood… and more. He would.

She slid her hand from his and wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Mina’s vision cleared as the beast swam up to the surface for a breath of fresh meat available on the chopping block. Drawing his hand up toward her face Tom had to lean over her body, half bracing himself with his available hand.

“I think it was a mistake for the others to leave you to my tender mercies, Tom… what would you do if I decided to devour you right here?”

“Wha... what?” He was staring at her lips as they parted just over his wrist. “Mina… wait.”

She gave him a knowing smile. “You’ve wanted me all this time, Tom… do you expect me to believe that you haven’t dreamt of my mouth on you… my lips pulling blood from your body… my tongue sliding over your pulse.”

He was lost in her spell, his eyes barely responded to the sharp bite of pain as her teeth sank into his skin.

Word Count 383

Tonight

2006-10-11T07:37:18Z

“How like a man to simplify it and spread such a ridiculous notion.” Mina set the periodical down and regarded Dorian from across the room. “I’m sure that Dorian would agree with the comment, wouldn’t you, Dorian?”

He stood, taking a step back from the brandy decanter. “I’m quite sure that I have no idea what you are referring to, Mina darling.”

Quartermain sighed, a long suffering rattle down in his chest and then looked back down at the Winchester rifle he’d taken apart and laid out on the table.

She stood, her hand artfully rearranging her skirts to avoid being caught in the ornate chair. “Merely the need for a man to qualify everything in a relationship in the simplest terms possible, ignoring the need for… mystery.”

He raised a brow and leaned back against the wall, lifting his snifter in salute. “You, Mina, are the most intriguing mystery that I have ever encountered. I find no need or … desire to trivialize what is between us.”

She gave him a measuring look. “Was, Dorian… what was between us.”

A servant entered the room and paused momentarily between the two of them, looking first from one to the other and the silent challenge that hung in the air. With a subtle bow, he withdrew from the room.

“Oh,” he lowered the snifter to his lips and drank some of the rich amber colored liquid before sliding the edge of the glass along his lower lip. “I beg to differ. While your heart originally belonged to saintly Mr. Harker, I am the one that you dream of at night, Mina.”

She scoffed. “Really, Dorian, I do believe that you might one day fall from the high opinion you have of yourself. Who are you to know what I see in my dreams?” She looked down to tug at one of her immaculate cuffs.

He was suddenly beside her. “I know what you see in your dreams, Mina.” His voice was warm and full in her ear, “I know, because you are the one that haunts me when I close my eyes. When I toss and turn between my sheets it is your skin sliding against mine that I crave, your fingers tangled in my hair and your voice sighing my name. Deny it all you want, Meeeeeennaaa…” he leaned close enough that his voice sang through her veins, "I will have you again. I will have you… tonight.”

“Mrs. Harker.”

Mina turned from Dorian, her eyes blinking once then twice as she focused on the doorway. Captain Nemo stood in the middle of the opening, his hands fisted on his hips and feet shoulder width apart, he looked every inch the legendary nautical Captain with his first mate looking over his shoulder. “Captain?”

“I wonder,” he bowed his head slightly, “if you might have a moment, for a matter of science.”

Mina took a few steps toward the door, clasping her hands behind her back as she went. “I am at your disposal, Captain.”

“I found something on the bridge…”

She turned for a second as they entered the corridor, sliding her gaze over Dorian’s self-assured smile before she disappeared into the shadows.

Word Count 533
Posted to Talking Muses, FanFic100, 50DarkFics, LXG

50 Darkfics Table 25/50

2006-10-08T21:27:20Z

001.	Ravished.	002.	Dark Path.	003.	Rule/Ruler.
004.	Blood.	005.	Lost Haven.	006.	Claws.
007.	Awakening.	008.	Animal.	009.	Branded.
010.	Torture.	011.	Weapon.	012.	Bound.
013.	Nails.	014.	Coffin/Buried.	015.	Angry.
016.	Evil.	017.	Fear.	018.	Conquer.
019.	Slave.	020.	Master.	021.	Brutal .
022.	Leash.	023.	Unholy.	024.	Power.
025.	Destiny.	026.	Ancient.	027.	Narcissus.
028.	Innocence.	029.	Guilt.	030.	Chains.
031.	Flame.	032.	Past.	033.	Present.
034.	Broken.	035.	Oath.	036.	Never.
037.	Forever.	038.	Outcast.	039.	Eternal.
040.	Dance.	041.	Fixation.	042.	Dirty.
043.	Candle.	044.	Hunger.	045.	Lust.
046.	Wicked.	047.	Stake.	048.	Leather.
049.	Razor.	050.	Eruption.	051.	Yes.
052.	Forced.	053.	Light.	054.	Gleam.
055.	No.	056.	Madness.	057.	Please.
058.	Mask.	059.	Destruction.	060.	Poisonous.
061.	Feral.	062.	Shadow.	063.	Masterpiece.
064.	Ghost.	065.	Match.	066.	Midnight.
067.	Mighty.	068.	Coven.	069.	Forsaken.
070.	Unbound.	071.	Pain.	072.	Sorrow.
073.	Cry/Tears.	074.	Darkness.	075.	Non-con.
076.	Anonymous.	077.	Unforgiving.	078.	Different.
079.	Rain.	080.	Restraints.	081.	Clamps.
082.	Metal.	083.	Love.	084.	Hate.
085.	Indifference.	086.	Bite.	087.	Phoenix.
088.	Rope.	089.	Ball.	090.	Tight.
091.	Hot.	092.	Wax.	093.	Voice.
094.	Lick.	095.	Need.	096.	Struggle.
097.	Flesh.	098.	Hunt.	099.	Writer's Choice.
100.	Writer's Choice.

Talking Muses Posts/Prompts

2006-10-08T09:10:33Z

For Talking Muses:

Fear	Application Post
Mina Harker	Introductiuon Post
6B	Picture - the Cell
6D	Quote - Hindsigh is 20/20
6C	Scatter
7C	Fragile
8D	Quote - Newton's 3rd Law
9D	Oscar Wilde Quote
10C	Tender

London Bridge

2006-10-07T20:44:34Z

FanFic100 Prompt: 090: Home
Characters: Mrs. Mina Harker & Henry Jekyll
Fandom: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Word count: 428 words
Summary: Mina misses home..

The night was young, for a vampire. They turned onto the main thoroughfare and Jekyll shifted gears sliding his hand off the gear shift to his thigh. Through a quick sideways glance he found Mina sitting comfortably in the fine leather chair beside him. “What are you listening to?”

She gave him a catlike grin. “Fascinating music, Henry, you really should expand your repertory.”

How come every time you come around
My London London Bridge…

He gave a little chuckle, “Really, Mina… this is not exactly what I’m used to.”

“Henry, you should have learned to live a little by now.” Her tone was laced with a generous dose of her dark humor and filled with promise. “It reminds me of home.”

“Home, Mina?”

Her hand slid across the center console and under his, her fingers flexing along his thigh. “Home, Henry.”

How come every time you come around
My London London Bridge want to go down…

His eyes lifted to the rear-view mirror and met her heated gaze and then returned to the road when her nails bit slightly into his flesh through the fine wool of his slacks. “I don’t see why we couldn’t go back for a visit.”

The city passed by outside their windows. The heavy tint did little to stifle their view of the nightlife when their eyes were so attuned to the dark. She listened to him breathing; strong… steady… she did so love to hear him breathe. Her fingers slid up the inside of his thigh. It was only a fraction of an inch, but she smiled in satisfaction as his hands gripped the wheel tighter, his knuckles turning white along the edges.

“That sounds lovely.” Another fraction of an inch further along and Jekyll’s hands twitched on the wheel and in reaction their SC2007 slipped into the next lane, startling a taxi driver who was nearly asleep at the wheel. “I want to go home, now, Henry.”

“To London?” His voice shook slightly, tense and tight with concentration as she turned in her seat.

The voice on the radio reached his ears… My lips make you want to have a taste … Drawing his gaze to his companion.

Mina drew a line from his ear to his chin along his jaw, her lips parting as a long purring sigh escaped them. “No, Henry… I want to go back to our home… now.”

Wordlessly he nodded and dragged his gaze back to the road and made a U-turn at the next intersection. He was more than eager to do her bidding.

Want

2006-10-07T12:03:56Z

Prompt: WANT (October 2006)
Character: Mrs. Mina Harker
Fandom: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Word count: 638 words
Summary: Mina's hungry...

Mina left the group as soon as they returned to the Nautilus, retiring to her room without saying much of anything to the others.

Nemo and Jekyll stopped just inside the hatch, the last two to enter. Nemo watched Mina turn the corner and then looked at the Doctor, now oblivious to the world around him. “Something wrong, Doctor?”

Nothing, but the slight movement of his lips.

“Doctor?”

Jekyll shook himself a little and turned toward Nemo as a reflex more than a conscious effort. “I’m sorry, Captain, what did you say?”

With slow and measured tones, the stoic Captain repeated himself. “Something wrong, Doctor?”

“No.. no...” his gaze was distant again, “I was just wondering about Mrs. Harker. She seemed in a hurry to… leave. I wonder, perhaps, if she was injured or in need of assistance.”

“I’m sure she is quite capable of taking care of herself, Doctor, I-”

Moving a step forward, Dr. Henry Jekyll turned a deaf ear to the other man. “I really should see if she needs help. If you’ll excuse me.” Without waiting for a reply, Jekyll followed after her.

* * * * *

Mina held onto the post of her bed, her fingers flexing convulsively on the antique wood. “Let it pass… let is pass…” She hissed out the words, chanting them over and over to drown out the growl of hunger deep within her body.

She’d fed well during the mission, the necessity of ‘removing’ a few of the guards at the temple had allowed her to dine without jeopardizing Nemo’s crew any more than she had to. It was the unexpected side-effects that had her literally hiding in her quarters.

Mina hungered for flesh. Not to taste or drain clean of blood, no, Mina desired flesh… bare and warm beside her own. Needed the heated friction of bodies pressed against each other, wrapped around each other. She wanted it so desperately that it hurt… a sharp gnawing hunger eating its way through her sanity.

Another wave of desire swept through her and her knees buckled. Mina prepared to meet the ground as it rushed up toward her, but hands, strong and sure held her up a few inches from the floor.

“Mina, are you quite alright?”

“I’m… I’m…” She let him lift her onto the edge of the bed and she sank onto the comforter willingly, “I’m fine.”

He knelt down beside her, “You didn’t seem so a minute ago... if you don’t mind me saying so.” He looked at her face and saw the fine sheen of perspiration on her skin. “Mi- Mrs. Harker,” he lifted up a hand and gently touched the back of it to her cheek, “I wish you would let me help, I-”

With inhuman speed, Mina’s hand snaked out and snatched his wrist, holding it in her vice-like grip.

Henry understood the power he felt flooding through her veins. He remembered it well enough, even if he did not have a claim to it on his own. The Doctor in him was fascinated, eager to see what she was going to do next.

Mina turned his hand over, exposing his palm and wrist. She leaned over his arm and drew in a long breath, as one would scent a fine meal at the table. Her tongue extended over her lower lip, sweeping from corner to corner. “You want to help, Doctor?”

Her gaze lifted from his wrist to his eyes, showing him how truly beautiful and dangerous they were, colored red with blood. He nodded his mouth suddenly dry. “Yes... yes… I want to help you.”

Her lips curled back in a smile, nearly feline in its grace. She kept her gaze on him as her hands lifted to the buttons at her neck. “Then, shut the door, Jekyll. Lock it.”

FanFic100 - Prompt 076 Who?

2006-10-07T10:45:58Z

Title: Away We Go
Fandom: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Characters: Agent Tom Sawyer, Agent Huck Finn, Mina Harker (mentioned)
Prompt: #76: Who?
Word Count: 298
Rating: PG
Summary: Mina becomes a subject of their investigation.

“Who?”

Agent Tom Sawyer slid the file across the desk. “Mrs. Mina Harker.”

“What has she done?”

Shrugging, Tom turned toward the window. “She’s been seen entering the building on several occasions.”

“For what purpose?”

Leaning across the desk toward his friend he couldn’t help the curiosity bubbling up in his eyes. “That, Huck, is what we need to find out.”

The younger man laughed and picked up the picture of the woman in question. “Oh… now I see, Tom.”

Tom came around the desk to look over his friend’s shoulder. “What?”

Touching a finger to the emulsion, Huck gave a little chuckle. “If this picture is halfway decent, she’s quite a looker, Tom. Won’t Becky be jealous?”

The shadow that passed over Tom’s eyes was unmistakable. “It’s been over for weeks, Huck. It has nothing to do with this.”

“Sorry there, old friend, I thought the two of you had patched things up.”

“Let’s just…” Tom took the photo back and lifted it up under the lamp beside him, “Let’s just let it go for now. We’ll find this lady and figure out what she’s doing for this… League, and then we’ll have a whisky or four and I’ll explain it to you then. All right?”

“I don’t mind, Tom… Becky never really did like me much,” he stood up and reached for his coat, “but I have a feeling this trip to England will be just what we both need to take our minds of things. And perhaps, put our hands on a little something else?”

Tom couldn’t help laughing at Huck’s suggestion. Left up to his friends’ ideas they might find themselves on the wrong side of the law before they complete their mission. “Then?”

“Let’s head out. I’ve been missing the water something awful.”

Prompt 8D - Quote

2006-10-01T06:28:34Z

"To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." -- Newton's Third Law of Motion.

I closed the book and ran my fingers over the embossed title filled in with gold leaf. Newton’s Teachings on the Nature of the World.

“Hmmmm….” My mind was whirring with thoughts. “Equal and Opposite reaction.” I drawled the last word out listening to it echoing against the walls in my chamber.

As a scientist I had always found the concept intriguing and while I understood that the physical principle was sound, it never seemed to get under the human skin. I had been pushing for years and always there seemed to be a rather unforgiving and immovable wall before me.

I had been, quite admittedly, a terror to my headmaster during my years in school. Brighton Academy had been a prestigious school and while I understood the importance of attaining my degree from its hallowed halls, I could not stomach much of the internal politics of living.

Science had been my love and while the others were grooming themselves for their futures as homemakers and wives, I was longing for a chance to peer through a microscope and discover some mysterious compound to change the world. I had been naïve and had not realized that no matter how much I pushed against the barriers of a proper woman’s education, I was never going to break through.

It wasn’t until I married Jonathon that I finally gained the power to ‘push back.’ He allowed me access to his books and spent hours explaining things to me. Later, armed with the knowledge and his acceptance, I could stand beside him in the scientific communities, for there were few that would dare to insult a woman in front of her husband.

He was solicitor as a vocation, but his heart was truly in science, and if he were still alive, I’m sure he would find my current ‘predicament’ fascinating. He would have made hundreds of journals by now, filled with notations on experiments and volumes of hypotheses.

Shortly after my marriage, I happened upon a few of my former schoolmates at the park. They were all so very unhappy with their marriages. Married life had turned out to be a prison for them, while my marriage had opened the door to my lifelong cage.

* * *

“Mrs. Harker?”

I turn toward the open doorway and catch a glimpse of Jekyll nearly hidden in shadows by the door. “Dr. Jekyll? Come in.”

He took a small step forward and bowed his head a fraction of an inch. “I hope I’m not bothering you.”

“No... no,” I stood, smoothing my skirts, “quite the opposite, I was just reading a favorite book of mine. What is that you need?”

“Well,” he cleared his throat behind his closed hand, “not so much of a need, really. I was wondering if you would offer your opinion on one of my experiments.” He stepped a little closer, his hand slowly dropping to his side. “You see, I’ve reached a point in it where I can’t decide what to try next. I feel like I am so very close to the answer, but I’m afraid that I might be interpreting the data… well, that I’m unconsciously trying to ‘push’ the analysis toward my desired end.” He looked up quickly. “Forgive me, I’m going on and on like a fool.”

I couldn’t help the smile that answered his apologetic one. “No time like the present. Come, we shall see what we can do.” Moving past him I stepped into the hallway and began the short walk to his quarters, all the while listening for his footsteps behind me.

Word Count: 599